WBOB Original Reads

Catching Up with Michale Graves, Former Frontman of The Misfits, Ahead of Providence Show

4/26/2017

Tony Jones

As a true road warrior of punk rock, Michale Graves has kept extremely busy since his time as vocalist for legendary horror-punk band the Misfits. In fact, he's back out on the road with a new tour that will bring him to Providence's own Firehouse 13 on Friday, April 28th

Tony Jones: For those who haven't had a chance to catch Michale Graves live, what can people expect at your upcoming gig?

Michale Graves: The performance that we have planned in Providence will be in support of my current back roads tour. We released our new CD back roads about two months ago at the beginning of the store and I have committed each of the 55 performances on this to her to feature the song from the new CD. This CD is a continuation of the voice that we created in the Vagabond acoustic album and then later followed up in The Wanderer acoustic album. This is very different from My Monster Rock voice and I really perform these new songs any unique and I hope entertaining way.

Tony Jones: You seem to always be on the road, what keeps bringing you back to touring?

Michale Graves: Everything that we do is centered around people. The fans and the time I have to spend with them on the road is why I tore so much. This album back roads is all about my life on the road touring especially in this acoustic voice. So the bottom line is what keeps me on the road? I need to touch interact and live with our fans.

Tony Jones: Do you prefer being out with the full band or doing solo acoustic?

Michale Graves: That's like saying which one My Two children do I love the most. Why I'm so excited about both full band and acoustic is it allows me to stretch artistically in several different ways. Full band events are more kinetic and action driven. Acoustic shows are much more personal. So I have the Good Fortune to be able to perform in both formats and that keeps me a balanced performer.

Tony Jones: How do you prepare for a tour?

Michale Graves: You know I prepare for a tour in the same way that a athlete prepare prepares for tournament. I spend a lot of time on cardio and getting my body in shape eating the right things and keeping my brain and body healthy. I also try to get a lot of rest before a tour because I will tell you that one thing at or is not full of and that sleep.

Tony Jones: With all the years of touring, do you have a favorite gig/festival that you've played? Or a particularly memorable one?

Michale Graves: Well I'll answer this the way an old friend of mine answer to simpler question my favorite one is the one about to do. That way I can say that every single day I perform and by the way it's true.

Tony Jones: You have had great success crowd-funding different projects, tell us about being able to connect with the fans in that manner.

Michale Graves: Yes we have for supper years involved the fans in crowd-funding projects. It's a way that we can announce and Market our projects way in advance of them being done and it's the way that we can reach out to new fans as the crowd-funding sites have a community of Their Own.

Tony Jones: What is in the pipeline for Michale Graves, what are the next projects you are working on?

Michale Graves: We'll Tony you know Mark Allen Stuart CEO of hydraulic entertainment period mark always has about 48 different projects up his sleeves at any one time. Because the release of the Backroads acoustic album was so successful a matter fact or almost sold out we've decided and I'll give you an exclusive here we've decided to create a full band version of the album as well so we should be heading into the studio early early summer to make that happen. We also have another monster rock project in the works as well as eight October Halloween tour. Also Mark is working on a feature film based on our song from the wind Worlds Collide album titled 3 days till Dawn and we're trying to get the production of that film in this calendar year as well. Mark also has us working on re-release over project that unfortunately I can't announce today but it should be coming at you in a few weeks.

Tony Jones: Any chances of a return to doing radio on the regular basis with the Michale Graves Show or Radio Deadly?

Michale Graves: You know I would love to have the radio show but given the fact that I'm on to her over a hundred and fifty days a year it makes doing a consistent radio show very very difficult we've tried to do it while on the road and that just doesn't work and on for a month off for two months really doesn't create the consistency or sustainability that we really want. But we love the medium and we're trying to figure out ways that we can make a show happen.

Tony Jones: A message to all the young bands out there?

Michale Graves: I think the best advice I can give is forget doing cover songs find your own voice. It's natural that every artist has inspirations I for one have a ton of bands and artists that inspire me when I first started out and inspire me today. One of the things that I know if you're really trying to make it go it at performing as a profession or quite frankly if you're just trying to get better as an artist find your own voice find your own uniqueness and ways to exploit your own Talent and in that way you'll have a better chance creating some magic.

Michale Graves brings his full band to Firehouse 13 on Friday, April 28th with local openers Damnation, The Skeleton Beats, Deprived and Wolfman Chuck. Doors are at 8pm, $12 cover. Check out FH13 for details.